In the aftermath of massive roster turnover, unprecedented off-court turmoil and a season littered with personal tragedy and season-ending injury, there was triumph.

The New Orleans Hornets clinched a playoff berth Wednesday night with a come-from-behind 101-93 win over the Houston Rockets at the New Orleans Arena. Yet, with one week of regular-season games remaining, first-year coach Monty Williams would only allow himself a brief postgame smile and a satisfying fist-pump aimed toward his wife, Ingrid, and their five children sitting in the club seats behind the Hornets’ bench.

As they have all season, the Hornets battled back from adversity Wednesday night in front of 12,728, overcoming a 17-point first-quarter deficit by outscoring Houston 80-55 in the last three quarters, taking a lead for the first time with 5:02 to go in the third, then holding off a fourth-quarter Rockets’ push for the victory.

Working with a roster that included only four holdovers, Williams instilled a defensive work ethic into the Hornets from the first day of training camp, a mindset that has served the team well and was instrumental in an 8-0 start to the season, and a 10-game winning streak in January.

“It has been a constant all season long,” said Paul who led the way Wednesday night with a game-high 28 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds. “The first quarter, we looked like the Bad News Bears, and the last three quarters, we showed up. It’s been our philosophy all season to defend. ...Defend, run and rebound. That’s what we did.”

Several players who have been instrumental in the Hornets’ success this season, and were key contributors Wednesday, earned postseason appearances for the first time.

Emeka Okafor scored 11 points and had two steals. Jarrett Jack scored 19 points off the bench. And Marco Belinelli’s 3-pointer with 5:02 to go in the third gave the Hornets their first lead.

All three will get a taste of the playoffs for the first time.

“I’m excited for those guys,” said Paul. “Trev (Trevor Ariza) is a guy who has won a championship, so has D.J. (Mbenga). But you look at our starting five, we’ve got two guys who’ve never played in a playoff game in Marco and Mek. So I’m extremely happy for those guys. Now, we’ve got to play.”

The Rockets, whose playoff hopes were dimmed considerably after Tuesday night’s home loss to Sacramento, raced to an 18-4 lead in the first five minutes, extended that to 17 by the end of the first quarter, and appeared to be on their way to improving their own postseason chances.

But fueled by a 14-2 finish to the second quarter that included a 3-pointer by Jack with 0.3 seconds to go, the Hornets rode that adrenaline to a second-half surge that sparked the victory.

“We set out to do this in the beginning of the year,” said Ariza, who had 19 points, five rebounds and six steals. “But we’re not satisfied. We still want to get the rest of these games here and go into the playoffs with a bit of momentum.

“They made a really big run (in the first quarter) and hit a lot of 3s (8-of-16 in the first half). Basketball is a game of runs. They made theirs, we took their punch and came back, and we knocked them out.”

The Hornets limited the Rockets to one 3-pointer in the second half and held Houston’s leading scorer, Kevin Martin, to only nine points in the second half.

“We played our tails off,” said Houston Coach Rick Adelman. “We did everything we could do, we just didn’t do enough. Give their guys a lot of credit. We got the big lead, and they came back. We responded in the fourth quarter; it just wasn’t enough.”

The Hornets’ final playoff seeding likely will not be determined until the regular season ends in a week, although they moved into sixth in the Western Conference, ahead of idle Portland. But on Wednesday, there was no time for self-satisfaction.

“To me,” said Williams, “what I’m most proud to be associated with is an organization and a bunch of players who try to do the best they can, no matter what’s going on. We didn’t create the (season’s) distractions. Some of this stuff was out of our hands.

“Our guys, from day one, just decided to buy into our system. When you have guys like D-West and Chris, and Emeka, and Trev and J-Jack, Willie (Green), experienced guys, they help a rookie coach like me and cover up for a lot of my mistakes this year. Reflecting right now would be like kissing your sister; can’t get much out of that now. I think we’ll just try to win the next game and keep on pushing.”